


the best lack all conviction

by acanaceous



Series: the falcon cannot hear the falconer [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Team 10, also i spent so much time researching shogi and it did not help, man im apparently incapable of oneshots where no one dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 18:29:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17289167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acanaceous/pseuds/acanaceous
Summary: You're Shikamaru. You have brightness in you, a brilliance to outshine a supernova, but it does not itch under your skin. You could make yourself heard, but you have nothing to say.





	the best lack all conviction

01.  
Life is about as complicated as one is willing to make it. For the young, straining against the bonds of their childhood for a chance to prove themselves, it can become very complicated indeed. They are children, discovering death and fire. Subterfuge brings them mortal enemies for the very first time.

Shikamaru is not a complicated boy. He has little interest in proving himself, death, fire, subterfuge, or enemies of any kind. He would be more than content to live out his days lying on green grass watching the inexorable movement of the sky, and perhaps a game of shogi every so often.

In an idle world, Shikamaru would stay still forever. But the world is a river: in this world staying still means moving forwards.

So he does: resistance has never been his style.

02.  
Like all things, the Academy comes into his life, in interminable space filled in turn with dozing off in class and letting himself be dragged along in Naruto and Kiba and Chouji's pranks. Like all things, the Academy ends eventually. Shikamaru receives his team assignment after graduation with no particular surprise and no particular excitement.

It's not as if there's anything to be surprised--or excited, really--about. He knows Ino, he knows Chouji, and when he'd left the Nara compound that morning his father had told him "Have fun with your team, Shikamaru", and seeing his apathy had added that "Sarutobi plays a decent game of shogi, you know."

So it's no surprise. He doesn't know much about his instructor-to-be, but he knows enough. Sarutobi Asuma, son of the Hokage, former member of the Twelve Guardian Ninja and all that. He learns, also, that Sarutobi smokes -- although Shikamaru has only known him for a day, he hasn't seen him without a cigarette yet. He's very blunt, to the point of rudeness and all the way back again, and it's pretty funny to see Ino try and figure out what she thinks of him. Or maybe she's got a full T&I dossier on his life and skills already and is only reacting like that to psych him out. You can never really tell with Ino.

"--you kids thought you'd passed the graduation test already," Sarutobi is saying, "but--"

"Yeah, yeah, you're gonna give us an extra special test of doom we have to pass if we want to be genin, I _know_ , Daddy told me," Ino interrupts. That's Ino for you, Shikamaru figures.

Asuma sighs, and shrugs, and mutters "Ugh, Inoichi," softly enough that he probably thinks they didn't hear him. "Since you're all so prepared, I guess you can go," he tells them. "Meet me back here at nine tomorrow, and leave the attitude at home if you please."

Ino flips her hair, tells him "You _wish_ my attitude could be left at home!" and saunters out of the training ground. Chouji gives Sarutobi an apologetic shrug and follows, dragging Shikamaru after him as an afterthought.

"So," Chouji asks once they're on their way back to their respective compounds, "What'd you think of him?"

Shikamaru makes a so-so motion with his hands and offers, "Dad thinks pretty highly of him."

"Huh," Chouji says. "Guess it'll be interesting."

What Shikamaru would like is pretty much the opposite of interesting, but Chouji is probably well aware.

03.  
"Hm," Asuma-sensei says. He looks contemplative, with a smirk twitching at the corner of his mouth that tells Shikamaru he thinks he has an ace up his sleeve. Or a bishop, as it may be. "Check. Your move."

Shikamaru looks at the board, although he's already decided his next move. Asuma-sensei is confident in his Static Rook strategy, and even more confident in his defense. He's not wrong to be -- it's a strong castle, and very hard to attack from the front. But the Gold Yagura isn't quite as invulnerable from the side, and Shikamaru has a bishop of his own near the end of the board that Asuma-sensei hasn't been watching as closely as he should.

He moves the piece.

"Checkmate, sensei."

Asuma-sensei sighs, and says "I'll win a game some day," around the cigarette in his mouth.

"You can _try_ ," Shikamaru replies. So what, he's a little competitive at shogi. Sue him.

Asuma-sensei rolls his eyes like he's saying These kids and their attitudes, geez, gimme a break. Shikamaru is pretty sure that's what he's thinking, because he says it at least once a day. "Okay," Asuma-sensei begins, "Now that we've spent two hours playing shogi, can we please go over your katas?"

Shikamaru thinks about it. "Hmm," he says. "Nope."

Asuma-sensei rolls his eyes and says to no-one in particular, "Geez, gimme a break."

04.  
It's a sunny day. He'll remember this for the rest of his life: it was sunny, the sky was robin's-egg-blue and the clouds drifted across the horizon like they were drifting just enough to satisfy the wind and had nowhere they had to be. He doesn't much feel like cloud-gazing, and he thinks he won't for a long, long time.

"I never even beat you once at shogi," Asuma-sensei rasps. "But--remember our talk about the king." And Asuma-sensei, finishing his final messages to the three of them, smiles through the blood collecting under his tongue like he's trying to reassure them even though he's the one dying. And his wheezing, labored breaths slow. And they stop.

And Shikamaru's world falls apart.

**Author's Note:**

> you can promote every piece in shogi, but the bishop and the rook in particular become the dragon horse and the dragon king respectively and if thats not the coolest thing youve ever heard idk what to tell you!


End file.
